North Korean Diplomat Blames United States for Tensions but Calls for Peace Talks

At a news conference at the United Nations on Friday, North Korea’s envoy, Sin Son-ho, left, told member states to ignore sanctions against his country.

Andrew Gombert / European Pressphoto Agency

By RICK GLADSTONE and JANE PERLEZ

June 21, 2013

In a mix of diplomacy and bombast, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations called Friday for the United States to accept its recently revived proposal for direct peace talks, even as he blamed the Americans for all tensions on the Korean Peninsula starting with the war more than 60 years ago.

The ambassador, Sin Son-ho, also exhorted all countries to ignore the litany of economic sanctions imposed on the North by both the Security Council and the United States for its nuclear and missile tests, which have left the North Koreans increasingly isolated.

In a rare North Korean news conference at the United Nations, Mr. Sin demanded that the United States dissolve its military command in South Korea, which was created to oversee the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War. He urged the Americans to agree to high-level talks aimed at easing the tensions, eventually denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and replacing the armistice with a peace treaty, a proposal the North first revived last Sunday.

Mr. Sin said it was long past time to scrap the armistice, which he called “neither peace nor war.”

His news conference, conducted in English and broadcast on the United Nations Web site, seemed aimed at a foreign audience, part of what appeared to be a broader North Korean effort to shift to a tone of dialogue instead of confrontation over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

“This is their idea of a diplomatic offensive,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. “I think they’re saying they’re ready to come back to some kind of talks, but they’re making it clear that they are not going to talk about denuclearizing without the broader stuff.”

The ambassador, who spoke for nearly an hour, took particular issue with the name of the American command in South Korea, the United Nations Command, although the United Nations plays no role. “The United States is dishonoring the United Nations by abusing the name of the U.N. Command, as if the United Nations is a warring party,” the ambassador said. “This is a shame and another unproductive anachronism.”

The United States has always regarded the armistice as a central component of its Korea policy, and has repeatedly said the North must take concrete steps to show sincerity in relinquishing nuclear weapons before it would agree to direct talks.

The Americans also have remained deeply wary of the alternating signals of aggression and conciliation that have been coming from North Korea under its new leader, Kim Jong-un, grandson of the country’s revolutionary founder and Korean War icon, Kim Il-sung.

In Washington, the Obama administration had no immediate comment to the North Korean ambassador’s remarks. But a State Department spokesman, Patrick Ventrell, told reporters at a regular press briefing that “our sanctions will continue.”

Even as he called for talks with the Americans, Mr. Sin held his own country blameless for the tensions on the Korean Peninsula and said the North’s actions, including nuclear weapons development, were entirely for self-defense.

“The most pressing issue in Northeast Asia today is the hostile relations between the D.P.R.K. and the United States, which can lead to another war at any moment,” he said, using the initials for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The United States, as a signatory to the armistice agreement, is entirely responsible for the ever-worsening situation on the Korean Peninsula,” he said.

He sidestepped questions on China, which has long protected the North but has grown increasingly unhappy over its provocations. Asked about the latest Security Council sanctions on North Korea, which China and the United States helped draft, Mr. Sin said: “I urge the nations which are members of the United Nations to not follow the sanctions and the blackmail policy of the United States blindly, because the United Nations Security Council resolutions on sanctions and the blackmails against us — that is unjustified, that is illegal.”

Mr. Sin’s rare public display came as a top North Korean emissary, Kim Kye-gwan, a vice foreign minister, ended a three-day visit to China.

Mr. Kim’s visit was notable partly because it preceded a visit to China next week by the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye. It was also the first public contact between North Korea and China since President Obama and China’s president, Xi Jinping, met in the United States, after which the Americans said the leaders had made progress on North Korea. American experts on North Korea said they believed its government was anxious to stop the Chinese from according Ms. Park a favorable visit, and to stop the Chinese and Ms. Park from calling for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.